South China Sea dispute

Beijing is set to start construction this year on a South China Sea islet within the Philippines' claimed exclusive economic zone as it seeks to project its power in the disputed waters, Hong Kong media reported. China will establish an outpost on Scarborough Shoal, 230 km off the Philippine coast, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported.

Japan observed that China was making the world "worried" with its military buildup and maritime expansion in the East and South China Seas. China and Japan dispute sovereignty over a group of uninhabited East China Sea islets, while in the South China Sea, Beijing is building islands on reefs to bolster its claims.

China has rattled nerves with its military and construction activities on the islands in the SouthChina Sea, including building runways, though Beijing says most of what it is building is for civilian purposes, like lighthouses. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the waters, through which about $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year. A 1947 Chinese map showed the two island groups falling entirely within its territory. Those claims are mirrored by Taiwan. South China Sea dispute is mainly a row over territory and sovereignty over ocean areas, and the Paracels and the Spratlys two island chains claimed in whole or in part by a number of countries.

Vietnam hotly disputes China's historical account, saying China had never claimed sovereignty over the islands before the 1940s. Philippines invokes its geographical proximity to the Spratly Islands as the main basis of its claim for part of the grouping. Malaysia and Brunei also lay claim to territory in the South China Sea that they say falls within their economic exclusion zones, as defined by UNCLOS the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea according to BBC.

Brunei does not claim any of the disputed islands, but Malaysia claims a small number of islands in the Spratlys. In May 2014, the introduction by China of a drilling rig into waters near the Paracel Islands led to multiple collisions between Vietnamese and Chinese ships. In April 2015, satellite images showed China building an airstrip on reclaimed land in the Spratlys.